End of Life Conversations: Normalizing Talk About Death, Dying, and Grief

Episódios

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  Breaking the Silence Around Death: Grief, Community & Human Connection | Weekly Dispatch 12.10.2026 22min

  Send us Fan Mail Why is it so hard to talk about death, grief, and loss when these experiences are part of every human life? In this Weekly Dispatch, we explore how breaking the silence around death can help us build stronger communities, support grieving people, and create opportunities for genuine human connection. Too often, fear of saying the wrong thing or making someone uncomfortable keeps us from having conversations that could help people feel less alone. But talking about grief doe...
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  Alzheimer's Caregiving, Grief & Loss: Suzy McNamara on Loving Someone Through Dementia 10.10.2026 47min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens when you begin grieving someone you love long before they die? Alzheimer's caregiving can bring profound grief, isolation, and difficult decisions that few people outside the experience fully understand. In this episode, Suzy McNamara shares her personal journey of caring for her husband, Bob, who lived with early-onset Alzheimer's. Through her story, we explore the emotional realities of dementia caregiving, anticipatory grief, caregiver isolation, and the chal...
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  What Are We Doing, Men? Patriarchy, Violence & the Responsibility to Act | Weekly Dispatch 05.10.2026 38min

  Send us Fan Mail What does it mean for men to take responsibility for violence, patriarchy, and the culture that allows harm to continue? In this Weekly Dispatch, we look beyond the latest story of sexual violence or abuse and ask a harder question: What keeps these patterns happening again and again? The conversation explores how patriarchy is sustained by fear, control, silence, and the normalization of harmful behavior. But it also asks what becomes possible when we move from domination to...
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  Tarot, Mediumship & Grief: Can We Connect With Loved Ones After Death? | Jenna Matlin 03.10.2026 48min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens to our relationships when someone we love dies? For many people, grief doesn't end the relationship. We may still want to talk with someone who has died, feel their presence, seek closure, or wonder whether there are ways to remain connected. But where do tarot and mediumship fit into that experience? In this conversation, Jenna Matlin, tarot practitioner and author of The Tarot Book of the Dead, explores the intersection of tarot, mediumship, grief, and contin...
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  What Are We Allowed to Say When We Grieve? Language, Loss & Emotional Honesty | Weekly Dispatch 28.09.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail What are we actually allowed to say when we grieve? Grief doesn't always come out in polite, carefully chosen language. Sometimes it sounds angry. Sometimes it's profane. Sometimes it's confusing, blunt, funny, or completely incoherent. And sometimes we simply can't find the words. In this episode of End of Life Conversations, we explore the complicated relationship between grief and language, and what happens when the words someone uses to express their pain make other peopl...
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  Grieving Without Rushing: Nature Rituals for Loss and Change with Day Schildkret 26.09.2026 43min

  Send us Fan Mail When life changes, the temptation is to rush toward the other side — to find answers, regain control, and get back to normal. Artist and ritualist Day Schildkret offers another way: slow down, make meaning, and let beauty help you meet what cannot be fixed. In this conversation, Day shares how Morning Altars began after his father's death. What started as a simple nature-based ritual — arranging mushrooms, bark, and found materials under a eucalyptus tree each morning for 30...
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  Why Aging Should Be Celebrated, Not Fought: Body Image, Mortality & Eldering | Weekly Dispatch 21.09.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail Why are we so afraid of aging? From anti-aging products and beauty standards to the discomfort we feel when our bodies change, our culture often treats aging as something to hide, fix, or overcome. But what if aging isn't the problem? What if our fear of aging is? In this Weekly Dispatch, we explore what it means to age with dignity, honesty, and compassion. We look at the relationship between aging and body image, the cultural pressure to remain young, and the grief that can...
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  Why We Grieve More Than Death: Relationships, Health, Identity & Loss | Dr. Janice Lundy 19.09.2026 33min

  Send us Fan Mail We often think of grief as something that follows death. But what about the end of a relationship, a major change in health, losing a home or beloved pet, leaving behind an identity, or mourning a future we once imagined? Dr. Janice Lundy returns to explore grief and loss beyond death, offering a broader and deeply compassionate understanding of what it means to grieve. She shares how creating a personal loss-history timeline helped her recognize grief she had previously mini...
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  Why Being Wrong Feels Like Grief: Ego Death, Shame & the Courage to Change | Weekly Dispatch 14.09.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens when you discover that something you deeply believed is no longer true? Being wrong can feel surprisingly like grief. We may feel shame, defensiveness, sadness, or even that part of who we were has disappeared. When a belief is connected to our identity, morality, relationships, or sense of belonging, changing our minds can feel like losing an old version of ourselves. In this Weekly Dispatch, we explore why being wrong can feel like a kind of “small death,” and ...
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  How Poetry Helps Us Grieve: Finding Love, Light & Meaning After Loss | Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer 12.09.2026 47min

  Send us Fan Mail What if poetry could help us live with grief rather than trying to get over it? In this deeply moving conversation, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer explores the relationship between **poetry and grief, creativity and loss, and finding meaning after someone dies**. Speaking with Reverent Mother Annalouiza Armendariz and Reverend Wakil David Matthews, Rosemerry shares how poetry became a daily practice for meeting grief, love, memory, and uncertainty. After the tragic death of her ...
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  How Consciousness of Death Shapes Our Stories, Relationships & Connection | Weekly Dispatch 08.09.2026 22min

  Send us Fan Mail What does our awareness of death have to do with the stories we tell, the relationships we build, and the way we experience being alive? In this Weekly Dispatch of *End of Life Conversations*, we explore the profound connection between consciousness, mortality, storytelling, and human connection. We may spend much of our lives avoiding conversations about death. But what if our awareness that life is finite is not simply something to fear? What if consciousness of death is ...
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  Elder Law Explained: Estate Planning, Dementia Care & Avoiding Family Conflict | Chandra Lewnau 05.09.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens when an aging parent develops dementia and the family suddenly has to make difficult decisions about healthcare, caregiving, finances, and end-of-life wishes? In this episode of End of Life Conversations, we explore elder law with attorney Chandra Lewnau, whose work is shaped not only by years of legal experience but also by her personal experience watching her grandmother live with Alzheimer's and currently caring for parents with dementia. Chandra explains why ...
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  No Weekly Dispatch This Week 01.09.2026

  Send us Fan Mail We are sorry, but we wanted to let our regular listeners know that this week's dispatch had some technical issues. We won't be posting this week, but please join us again next week. Thank you for your support. Support the show We very much want to hear your thoughts. Please join us on Substack for our community chat. This podcast helps anyone dealing with loss. It can guide you with end-of-life planning and death-positive resources. Check out our introductory epi...
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  How to Advocate for Yourself in Healthcare: Patient Advocacy, Healthcare Proxies & End-of-Life Care | Beth Droppert 29.08.2026 32min

  Send us Fan Mail How do you advocate for yourself when you're sick, overwhelmed, or trying to navigate a complicated healthcare system? And who will speak for you if you can't speak for yourself? In this episode, we talk with Beth Droppert, a former critical care nurse and healthcare advocate who has dedicated her work to helping patients and families navigate healthcare with greater confidence, clarity, and compassion. Beth's journey into healthcare advocacy began with caregiving experiences...
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  The Cost of Othering: How “Us vs. Them” Thinking Divides Us | Weekly Dispatch 24.08.2026 25min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens when “us vs. them” thinking becomes the way we see the world? In this Weekly Dispatch, we explore othering, the process of seeing another person or group as fundamentally separate from ourselves, and the profound effect it can have on empathy, relationships, and community. We explore the historical roots of othering and how the pattern continues to influence our lives today. The conversation moves from the history of social division to something much more persona...
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  Aging, Palliative Care & Assisted Dying: What Nurses Need to Know About Death | Dr. Marianne Matzo 22.08.2026 48min

  Send us Fan Mail What do nurses, families, and caregivers need to understand about death, dying, and end-of-life care? In this thoughtful conversation, we speak with Dr. Marianne Matzo, a longtime researcher and educator whose work has explored gerontology, palliative care, nursing, assisted dying, and the ways we prepare for death. Dr. Matzo shares how an early connection with older adults led her toward gerontology and eventually toward deeper questions about death and dying. Her research a...
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  Climate Grief: Grieving Environmental Loss in a Changing World | Weekly Dispatch 17.08.2026 20min

  Send us Fan Mail Climate grief is real. But what exactly are we grieving when the climate changes? We often think of grief as something that follows the death of a person. But what happens when we lose familiar landscapes, ecosystems, seasons, species, communities, or a future we once imagined? In this End of Life Conversations Weekly Dispatch, we explore climate grief, eco-grief, environmental loss, and the emotional impact of a changing world. Extreme heat, wildfires, dying plants, changing...
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  What Does a Mortician Do? Becoming a Funeral Director, Embalmer & Crematory Operator | Will Harker 15.08.2026 37min

  Send us Fan Mail What does a mortician really do? For many of us, the word “mortician” brings to mind a funeral home, embalming, or preparing someone who has died. But the reality of modern death care is much broader. In this episode, we talk with Wil Harker, a Portland, Oregon mortician whose unconventional career journey took them from teaching, music, and sign language interpretation to becoming a funeral director, embalmer, crematory operator, and administrator of a green cemetery. Wil...
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  Climate Grief, Family Change & the Search for Your Authentic Self | Weekly Dispatch 10.08.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail What do you do when life is changing, but you don't quite have a name for what you're grieving? In this Weekly Dispatch from End of Life Conversations, we explore the kinds of grief that can emerge when children grow up, family relationships change, familiar places are transformed by climate change, and we begin questioning whether we're living as our authentic selves. Annalouiza reflects on a deeply personal period of transition, including a trip with her son as he explores ...
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  When the Chaos of Death Inspires: Don't Let Your Death Become Their Burden | Frank Flores 08.08.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail What happens to a family when someone dies, and nobody knows where the important information is? Most of us know we should prepare for death, but conversations about death, end-of-life planning, and organizing our affairs are easy to postpone. Then a death happens, and grief is suddenly accompanied by a long list of practical questions: Where are the important documents? What insurance exists? Who has access to the information the family needs? What happens next? In this ep...